Zelensky's chief of staff: Russia will "pay" for the Soviet-era famine

Russia will pay the price for a Soviet-era famine that left millions of Ukrainians dead during the winter of 1932-1933 and for its actions in the current war in Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Saturday.

"The Russians will pay for the murder of all the victims of the Holdomor and will be held accountable for today's crimes," Yermak wrote on the Telegram app, using the Ukrainian name "Holdomor" for the disaster.

Today, Saturday, is the anniversary of the famine victims.

In November 1932, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin deployed police forces to confiscate all grain and livestock from Ukrainian farms newly introduced under communism, including the seeds needed to germinate the new crop.

Millions of Ukrainian farmers starved in the following months in what Yale University historian Timothy Sender called "clearly premeditated genocide".

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